California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton released a new ad Thursday, a day after his debate with Democratic rival Xavier Becerra, that depicts a suggestive encounter between two young women to pitch undecided voters on his campaign.
The spot, titled “Just Try It, California,” is the first in a six-figure television and digital advertising push targeting Gen Z and millennial voters, according to a news release from Hilton’s campaign.
The ad features two AI-generated young women sitting on a bed under a Pride flag, with one wearing a shirt that reads “RESIST.” Their exchange implies they are about to become intimate, with one woman hesitant and the other reassuring her.
“What if my dad finds out?” one asks.
“Just try it,” the other responds. “Look, give me your hand. Close your eyes, and I’ll do all the work.”
The camera then reveals the two women filling in “Steve Hilton” on a California election ballot.
“I think I like it,” the once-hesitant woman says, before the ad closes on the slogan “Just try it.”
Hilton has spent recent months urging voters, including independents and Democrats, to break from the status quo, an approach that may be necessary given California’s heavily Democratic electorate. He has previously run ads appealing directly to voters who oppose President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Hilton, asking them to support his campaign anyway.
“People do not need permission from a party to want a state they can afford,” Hilton said in a statement Thursday. “Gas, utilities, housing, schools. Sixteen years of the same government, and it keeps getting harder to live here. Just try something that actually brings costs down.”
“You do not have to become a Republican to want a different result,” he added. “You do not have to like me. You just have to look at the last 16 years and ask if you are willing to try it.”
The ad drew mixed reactions online. Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who ran his own campaign known for viral advertising, called it “a brilliant ad.”
Others were more skeptical, raising concerns that the ad’s imagery, including the Pride flag, could be read as either exploiting LGBT themes or inadvertently alienating Republican voters. One social media user wrote that the ad “isn’t poorly executed, but no joke this might turn off more Republicans from voting for Hilton because of that flag and it appearing as a pro-LGBT Hilton ad,” while suggesting it could sway moderate or left-leaning voters instead.
Whether the attention-grabbing approach pays off remains to be seen. Recent polling shows Hilton trailing Becerra by roughly 18 percentage points.
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